The cards gained popularity in Europe despite the fact that they were frowned upon by the Church. They used them merely for crude forms of divination, without any apparent understanding of the cards' complex symbolism. It is doubtful that the gypsies themselves invented the cards. Since most Europeans of the time believed - erroneously - that the gypsies came from Egypt (hence the name gypsy), it is easy to see how the theory arose that the cards were Egyptian in origin, a theory that is open to debate. Most scholars credit gypsies with introducing the cards into Europe. Many theories exist concerning the origin of the allegorical and mystical cards, relating them to everything from the Egyptian Book of Thoth to the Hebrew Kabbalah to roving bands of Christian dissenters who may have used the symbolic pictures on the cards to teach their lessons to an illiterate populace. Tarok is one of the earliest known games utilizing the tarot cards, whose appearance in Europe around the fourteenth and fifteenth century still remains shrouded in mystery.
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